


Delicate

by torigates



Category: Bones (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-11
Updated: 2013-11-11
Packaged: 2018-01-01 03:40:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1039921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/torigates/pseuds/torigates
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They say your life will flash before your eyes before you die, and they’re right.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Delicate

  
They say your life will flash before your eyes before you die, and they’re right.

Kind of.

Booth is aware of Bones’ hand pressed against his chest, and dimly aware of some pain in the background, but all he can see is her face, and all he can hear is her shouting, “Booth, come _on_!”

He wants to say, “Gee Bones, I didn’t know you cared,” but all he can think is, ‘Please God, no. Not yet.’

 

//

 

Seeley is at his locker with a few friends when one of them nudged him.

“Look who it is.”

Seeley looked over and saw Harlan Kinny staring at him. “I hate that guy,” Seeley said glaring.

“What are you staring at, Booth? My math textbook?” Kinny asked with a sneer. “Don’t worry it won’t hurt you and your Philistine friends.”

“What are you talking about?” Booth asked. “I’m not Philistine. I’m Catholic.”

Kinny started to laugh hysterically. A few people around them laughed too. Booth could feel his cheeks burning with embarrassment.

His buddy threw Kinny up against the lockers and suddenly everyone stopped laughing. “You think you’re funny, Kinny?” He asked.

“No, but your friend Seeley is. Though I doubt he means to be,” Kinny said thoughtfully.

Seeley wasn’t sure how it happened, one minute Kinny is shoved up against the lockers, the next he’s being held over the stairway.

“Put me down!” He squawked.

No one listened to Kinny, in fact Booth’s buddy just shook him a little. “Who’s the smart guy now?” He asked.

Kinny started crying. Honest to God crying, and Seeley wanted to intervene, but the memory of his embarrassment stopped him from doing anything.

Instead he laughed along.

 

//

 

Booth joined the army right out of high school.

Partly because he had nothing better to do. They offered to pay for his college degree, and that was just a bonus, he probably wouldn’t have gone otherwise.

The other reason he enlisted was because he wanted to do something more with his life, to be a part of something bigger than himself.

Booth liked it. He fit in.

He was good at being a soldier.

 

//

 

It was a mission just like any other, but Booth felt on edge. Uncomfortable in his own skin.

It was his first time in Argentina, but just like every other place they sent him; he didn’t exactly take the time to do the tourists rounds.

He sat in silence in the back of the truck with his partner. They didn’t talk much anymore.

Booth mechanically set up his gun. It got harder after a few missions.

When he takes the shot it’s all too easy in some ways, but thankfully difficult in other.

Then the screaming started.

Booth tries not to look back. That part is still hard.

 

//

 

They meet in a bar of all places.

She’s so beautiful and full of life, Booth is immediately smitten.

“Go out with me,” he said.

“Are you asking or telling?” She laughed.

He leaned in. “Encouraging. Strongly,” and smiled.

“Hrm. I guess I’ll take that under advisement,” she said.

“Can I at least have your number?” He asked. “Your name,” he pleaded when she just continued to look at him.

“Rebecca. Mackenzie. If you find me, I’ll go out with you.”

A wide smile spread over his face. “You’re on.”

 

When he called her the next day she laughed.

“How’d you find me?” She asked over dinner.

“I work for the FBI,” he told her.

She laughed again but didn’t believe him. He has to take her to lunch in his office before she actually will.

She didn’t act outwardly impressed or scared like some girls might have.

Booth thinks he might be falling for her.

 

//

 

Nothing would ever hurt Booth more than the knowledge that the woman he loved didn’t think he would make a good husband. Father.

After that things were never the same between them. No matter how much he might have wanted it to be.

 

//

 

The first time he held Parker in his arms is simultaneously the best and most frightening moment of his life.

He was a father now.

Oh God, he was a _dad_.

Parker was so small and all Booth could think is ‘Please God, don’t let me fuck this up.’

 

//

 

The victim was a young woman between 18 and 22, approximately 5’7”, possibly a ballet dancer.”

Booth laughed.

“What?” She asked completely straight faced.

“How could you possibly know she was a ballerina?” He asked.

“I can’t say with absolute certainty, but she was most likely a dancer of some kind.”

He doesn’t believe her and it sets his investigation back three weeks.

When he talks to the victim’s mother and she brings pictures of her daughter wearing a wide smile and a pink tutu he wants to swear. Violently.

He settles for throwing the perp into a wall when he finally catches up for him.

It didn’t help.

(Two years later when her assistant wouldn’t put through any of his calls, Booth wanted to throw _him_ into a wall.)

 

//

 

“Catch me, Daddy!” Parker giggled running at him full speed.

Booth put out his arms and caught him. ‘I’m missing so much,’ he thought.

“I love you, Daddy,” Parker said kissing him on the cheek.

“I love you too, sport.” Booth hugged his son tightly against him.

 

//

 

Their first kiss is awkward.

Only Bones could make something as romantic as kissing into something clinical.

(And if Bones knew he found kissing romantic she would probably explain the anthropological reason.)

Booth thought that Caroline wanting to watch was just weird.

As he kissed her Bones grabbed onto his jacket to pull him closer and let out a little sigh.

Maybe it wasn’t so awkward after all.

 

//

 

“I have a way to lodge reasonable doubt in the jury.”

“We can’t talk about this,” Booth hissed.

“Please. You’re the person I talk to about things like this.”

Booth should have known he was in trouble then.

 

“That’s a lot of heart, Bones.” Booth tries to smile, but can’t quite get all the way there.

“Answer the question please, Agent Booth,” Judge Haddoes tells him.

“Could Bones have killed Kirby? Temperance Brennan – I’ve worked with this woman. I’ve stood over death with her, I’ve faced down death with her. And Sweets, he’s brilliant he is, but he’s wrong. She could not have done this.” Booth knows why Bones is doing what she’s doing, but he can’t allow this scenario to go unqualified.

“I didn't ask you your opinion of Dr. Brennan's character. I asked you, _did she have time_?”

One year ago, hell, one _hour_ ago, Booth would have said that Bones didn’t understand what answering that question would do to him, but looking in her eyes in the courtroom ass Booth sat on the witness stand under oath to God and country, he eyes said, ‘I know what this is costing you, and I’m asking you anyway.’

Had she been any other person, any one else, Booth would have known it to be selfish. But Bones, Bones. For her it said, ‘I trust you to help me,’ and that was huge.  
Booth said, “Yes. She had time,” but thought, ‘I would do anything for this woman.’

 

//

 

Bones could actually _sing_.

Not that Booth was all that surprised when he thought about it, the woman could do everything else incredibly.

No. Underneath all the science-talk and analyzing, Bones was a fun person, and Booth couldn’t help but smile and dance along as she belted out ‘Girls Just Want to Have Fun’.

“Seeley!”

Booth looks but doesn’t think. He sees the gun and steps in front of Bones even before reaching for his own gun.

The bullet catches him in the shoulder or chest, he’s not really sure which at this point, and he hits a table on the way down to the floor.

He’s aware of Bones taking out the gunman, and stupidly ‘She’s _really_ going to want a gun now,’ runs through his head.

“Booth you’re going to be fine. I’m right here,” she tells him.

He’s _glad_. Despite the danger, despite the risks, despite everything, he’s glad she’s with him. That she’s _always_ with him.

“Come on. You can do this. You’re going to be fine. You can make this.” He grabs her hand like it’s a lifeline, and tries to nod but can’t.

“Come on. Come on, Booth,” and she’s screaming at him and crying, and Booth hates that he’s the reason she’s so upset.

When she hugs his body close to hers all he can think is, ‘Please God, no. Not yet, I’m not ready. Not yet.’

“Come on, Booth, no. _Come on!_ ”

 

//


End file.
